Breaking Down a Bulk LEGO Lot to Maximize Minifigure Profits

I tend to focus on bulk. Simple reason really. It's what I spend most of my investment resources on.  While I do have a small and slowly growing pile of boxed sets stashed where the seven year old Sherlock can't find them I will continue to make way more money on bulk lots for the foreseeable future.

While there are plenty of exceptions with most sets much of the value is tied to the minifigs. Bulk lots are no different, much of the value in any bulk lot is tied to whatever minifigs it happens to contain. Where the difference lies is the condition that they are found in. The pic below is of all the mini figures that I sorted out of a roughly 30 pound lot. And I apologize in advance for the picture quality.

Again that's all of them without any sorting (other than a Killer Croc I spotted him and had already listed him by this point.) When I sort figures the first thing I do is dump them all out. The square is just so you can judge the size.

Some of these are complete, some are striped to the torso, and many are in between. For a small pile like this I use two of the Lego sorting trays and just have at it. I also will toss all Star Wars figures and pieces their own box as I go. After about an hour this is what I had in my trays. And that's one hour with seven year old help. I'm normally much faster.

The top tray has most of the minifig pieces.  Hands by color, arms, heads by color. When sorting loose heads stick them together, it allows you to look at several at once. It's hard to see in the pic, but I've got them sorted boy/girl as well.  Next I have partial figs, then legs with any that are printed in their own spot, and finally torsos. The bottom tray is more of a catch all. I have a spot for Ninjago, Batman, Indiana Jones, shields, visors, hair, swords/knives, guns/arrows, 3 for hats/helmets, a random accessories area, and a spot for any accessories that go under the head. As I went I pulled out Star Wars and sorted some of them as well.

The top is a bunch of random Star Wars, the bottom are ones that I could sort by set quickly, and a whole bunch of battle droids. And yes the tray is from the inside of an Advent Calendar. Hey, it was free.

And lastly all the minifigs that were either complete or close to complete.

When I'm working on sets having all these guys stand up makes it sooo much easier to scan them all. Speeds the process up considerably. Then they all go back in a box to save space. So that's it, my patented quick sort method for minifigs. While I'm sure everyone has there own way of doing a sort like this, this method has worked well for me over the last few years. Now go get to sorting.